As positioning technologies, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Galileo positioning system (Galileo), cell-ID positioning, and the like, increasingly mature, the tagging of media objects, such as audio clips, images, and the like, with information associated with the physical location of the party capturing the media object is becoming more and more popular. Other types of metadata may also be tagged to media objects. For example, temporal metadata associated with the time at which a media object was captured may be stored or tagged to the media object. This temporal metadata, together with the positional metadata, may be used to associate captured media with events and objects in the past, present and future. As a result of the foregoing enhancements in positioning and metadata technologies, individuals are growing to expect quick and easy access to information about the places and objects in their surroundings, without having to specifically request the information or identify their location.
By adding additional sensors to electronic devices including, for example, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, or the like, additional possibilities for providing location-based information and services are created. In particular, in addition to determining the location of a party taking an image or capturing a sound (e.g., using a GPS receiver), as well as the time at which the media object was captured, it may also now be possible to determine the direction of his or her camera or microphone, the zoom level, and/or the auto focus settings. Using this information, it may be possible to estimate the three-dimensional (3D) area that is visible in the photograph or video, or the area from which a captured sound emanated. For example, Neill Campbell, Henk Muller, and Cliff Randell, in “Combining Positional Information with Visual Media,” Deptartment of Computer Science, University of Bristol (UK) (hereinafter “Campbell et al.”) disclose the use of “positional info” to “reconstruct the frustum of the camera (i.e., “the part of space which is covered on the visual”). According to Campbell et al., “the absolute position of the camera (for example a triple X,Y,Z or latitude, longitude, altitude) determines where the photograph was taken; the zoom, direction, pitch and roll information determines the field of view; and the focal length, with the depth of field, determines how much of the scene is on the photograph, in terms of depth.” Thus, not only is it possible to know where the party capturing an image is located, but it may also now be possible to know what buildings or objects at that location are likely captured in his or her photograph or video.
One can imagine many instances where an individual may want to obtain information not only about his or her current location, but also about buildings, businesses, landmarks, and the like, in images that have been captured or from which sounds have been captured. For example, a party may be viewing a picture of a group of friends hanging out at a night club and desire to know the name of the night club, where it is located and/or what its hours of operations are. Similarly, an individual may be viewing a picture of a particular landmark (e.g., the Space Needle, in Seattle, Wash.) and desire to know more about the landmark (e.g., its history—when it was built, by whom—etc.). Likewise, an individual listening to a recording of a concert may desire to know more about the venue at which the concert was performed.
In addition to the foregoing, advertisers are constantly looking for new ways to get individuals to view their advertisements. One example of a new, and highly successful, advertisement approach is that used by Google™ (i.e., AdSense), wherein the advertisements are selected for websites based on the content of the website.
A need, therefore, exists for a way to provide individuals with access to information about places, objects or other tangible and intangible features in areas associated with the images (still or video) they are viewing or the audio files to which they are listening, as well as to provide advertisers with a way to take advantage of the new trends in positioning and metadata technologies.